Natural Shocks

Based on Hamlet’s "To be or not to be" speech, Natural Shocks is a 65-minute, one-woman tour-de-force play—performed by playwright Lauren Gunderson—that bursts to life when we meet a woman waiting out an imminent tornado in her basement. Her story—and the secret she reveals—puts the reality of guns in America front and center. Natural Shocks is part confessional, part stand-up, and part reckoning.

As a nonprofit arts organization, MTC relies heavily on the support of donors, subscribers, and single-ticket buyers. Individual support from patrons like you is crucial to our organization’s existence and MTC along with other arts organizations locally and globally are experiencing significant losses due to the impact of COVID-19.

Videos

Performance Schedule

Ticket Prices

Select a Performance

To begin your ticket purchase, select a performance from the calendar below:

June 2020

Sun

Mon

Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Sat

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Cast

Lauren Gunderson

Angela

Lauren Gunderson (she/her/hers) is the most produced living playwright in America of 2016, winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Co. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned and premiered at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), Marin Theatre Co (I and You), The Denver Center (The Book of Will), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), San Francisco Playhouse (Bauer), and many more. Her work is published at Playscripts, Dramatists, and Samuel French (Emilie). Her children's book “Blast Off To The Moon! Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog" comes out next May. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory.

Lauren Gunderson is in residence with MTC through of the support ofthe Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program administered in partnership with HowlRound.

Creative Team

Lauren Gunderson

Playwright

Lauren Gunderson (she/her/hers) is the most produced living playwright in America of 2016, winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Co. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned and premiered at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), Marin Theatre Co (I and You), The Denver Center (The Book of Will), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), San Francisco Playhouse (Bauer), and many more. Her work is published at Playscripts, Dramatists, and Samuel French (Emilie). Her children's book “Blast Off To The Moon! Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog" comes out next May. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory.

Lauren Gunderson is in residence with MTC through of the support ofthe Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program administered in partnership with HowlRound.

Ari is a singer/songwriter with placements on ABC, Disney, and an On-Demand feature. A graduate of Ethnomusicology Jazz from UCLA, Afsar just released her debut EP, "Somewhere I Thought I'd Be." Afsar is the creator/composer of Jeannette, a musical about the first woman elected into Congress. Jeannette was recently developed at the O'Neill National Musical Theater Conference where Afsar won the 2019 Georgia Bogardus Holof Lyricist Award . She recently has composed a piece entitled Allegory directed by Sammi Cannold and Emily Maltby produced by the La Jolla Playhouse, which re-imagines the story of American Womanhood over the last 100 years composed of a cast of 20 professional and 100 non-professional performers. She has opened for Michelle Obama at the Shrine Auditorium, performed at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and opened for Bryan Stevenson at the ACLU national conference in D.C.. She was the original Eliza Hamilton in Chicago's production of Hamilton, Miss California 2010, top 10 at Miss America 2011, a top 36 American Idol Alum, and is about to star in LJP/McCarter Theater's Bhangin' It. She has been an advocate/performer/and public speaker for The Women's March, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, CharacterStrong, The Social Innovation Summit, Nexus Global, The University of Chicago, The MoveOn rally on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, and The United State of Women.